


What do you see

by Tunder28



Category: Hannibal (TV)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-05-12
Updated: 2013-05-12
Packaged: 2017-12-11 14:35:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,217
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/799809
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tunder28/pseuds/Tunder28
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“What did you see?”</p><p>“Nothing useful...” he sighed. Hannibal didn’t seem deterred.</p><p>“...something of interest then?” </p><p>Yes, Will nodded along. Hannibal was always in step with him, walking along down the dark path. Will wanted to know what his trick was, how he managed it.</p>
            </blockquote>





	What do you see

**Author's Note:**

> WARNING No beta reader so if you see a spelling error or grammar problem, let me know and I'll correct it.

What do you see?  
Series: Hannibal  
Pairing: None. (Friendship) Will/Hannibal

“Can I have a glass of water please” Will mutter in duress, blinking back sweat that ran into his eyes. The room was not warm at all yet he felt light headed and clammy. His breath puffed like dust, weakly weaving into his mouth but not his lungs.

“In a moment. Tell me, why did you think it would take place after dark?” Hannibal relayed, surveying him with a critical eye. 

Will pulled his mind back, breathing heavily in and out through his nose. He was having a panic attack, he had to be.  
“It didn’t feel...right. Just...it wasn’t right” Will expressed, face contorting with disgust.

“How so”

“The killing was off. The MO was all wrong, it’s all wrong!” Dr Lecter usually got his line of thinking. Why was it so hard for him to understand, for all of them to see what was in front of their faces. 

Leaning forward, Hannibal forced himself to eye level with him, head stooped low to hold his wavering gaze. “How did you know?”

“...Everything” Will whispered, the breath pushed out and leaving him. “It was everything” he gripped the arm rests to try and settle himself. “The body placement. The angle of the wounds. Our killer enjoys torture, its-“ The room swam for a moment, but no it was his head moving wasn’t it? Yes, drooping to the side as he slid sideways, half down the chair. 

His ears felt full of cotton, only barely managing to pick out hannibals foot fall as he approached. Fingers snapped in front of his eyes and colours burst around the tips. A hum was sounding, like his name being called by hundreds of bee’s in his ear. 

He wanted to wake up, get away from whatever was happening. Maybe he was dreaming-maybe he was finally going insane.

Ghost ran rampant at the edges of his vision, peeking into him and smiling, teeth the shape of spikes and needles. Their paleness amplified the blood on their clothing, the victims they had slaughtered and happily carrying the taint with them into death. 

But there was one dark shadow. One who step out into view, straight into his line of sight. He wanted Will to see him but kept himself cloaked in darkness. The pale ones danced in and out of view, swaying around hannibals office. Hannibal...where was Hannibal!

Surely he couldn’t be safe with all these ghosts running around-

“-Will” a hand grasped his shoulder, pulling him up the chair and out of his haze. Dragging him up with a gasp like a drowning man. Hannibal kindly kept his face passive, not recoiling from him as others did. 

“It...i-“ His tongue rolled around inside his mouth, too thick and swollen with other killers words. 

“Its alright. I only gave you an average dose. Enough to send you under....what did you see?”

Will shook his head with a weak laugh. An average dose of hannibals own concoction being a weak sedative combined with venlafaxine, to promote hallucinations. Right, that was right. He’d asked Hannibal to help him work through the case and the doctor had offered his drug. 

“What did you see?”

“Nothing useful...” he sighed. Hannibal didn’t seem deterred.

“...something of interest then?” 

Yes, Will nodded along. Hannibal was always in step with him, walking along down the dark path. Will wanted to know what his trick was, how he managed it. He’d been walking it for years and hadn’t found a safe haven to take shelter in.  
Hannibal smiled down at him, his shadow rippling along his frame causing Will to bit the inside of his cheek. The drug would wear off soon. Maybe his brain would collapse in on itself and let him sleep for a few hours. Hopeful wishes.  
“The night is still young. Would you like a glass of wine?”

“No thank you, just water please. Besides, drinking while under the influence of drugs?! i hardly knew you had it in you doctor” he used a light teasing tone looking up at Hannibal waist coat buttons. 

A fond glance was all he got back. Hannibal tugging his jacket closed around his chest with a smirk, “ I won’t be a moment”. 

When he returned, he placed Will’s chilled glass in front of him before retiring to his own chair with his drink. Will nodded his thanks regardless of the red wine clearly visible on the crisp of the glass. 

Turning water to wine...like a god. 

He shook his head to clear it. Hannibal was no god, no man was. When he looked again, the glass was plain clear water that had him glaring down at his right hand than anywhere else. Who knew what he’d see. The drug would still be in his system 

“What do you see?” Hannibal asked from far away. At the edges of his vision, the room was on fire. Will didn’t want to look up and see him. Hannibal was the only normal in his life he didn’t want to look and see like he always did. He couldn’t help it-he had to.

Ice cold fingers started lifting his face up. He scrunched his eyes shut. Not Hannibal he couldn’t ruin that stable side of his new self. 

“Why do you keep fighting Will?” a cold voice asked, its tone near flat but with hannibals accented influence.

“Because it’s the right thing to do” the words ‘only thing to do’ sat unsaid. He peeked and strayed his sight away from inquiring eyes. When the start of a mocking smile began to lift hannibals lips, Will shook his head and continued.

“It’s not right....not me. I may get lost sometimes and e-ev-even be delusional, but I know me. I know my own horrors better than anyone and it’s what I have to come back to. You may think it fickle and unkind but I’ve my own horrors to deal with”. He couldn’t see hannibals to, no matter how despite the man tried to show him. 

The thought rang true inside his skull. It made sense. Made other things a lot more sense. 

Hannibals smile changed, cunning and prideful. But not of himself. Of will.

He tried not to look too hard or let his eyes hover on that smile, knowing how it made his insides shift and disrupt his thoughts. It was just another game of hannibals. One of many he’d deployed in delving into will’s psyche and pulling the walls down. He could look inside his mind and see the rubble of old forts, some engraved with personal space, hunger, self fear and hatred. These were the area’s Hannibal had consumed in him. Had battered at the foundations till they crumbled.

“Well Will, you’ll come around eventually. We have plenty of time here you and i” he indicated to the room around him. Sounded a tad cynical but he wasn’t to mention ‘that’ to Hannibal. He still wanted all of his extremities. He’d asked for his sanity back but it was long gone. Hannibal walked in the dark just as easily as Will himself, perhaps easier...more fluid. 

Swimming in death- 

“Would you tell me, if it became too much?” Hannibal inquired. 

“No” came instantly to Wills lips without him having to try hard. 

Hannibal looked taken back, “Dear Will, Why not?”.

“You-“ but what was he to say. Burrowed inside and set up a place for yourself to fester. Betrayed me and confused me. Used me in endless games. Let me trust you when all this time you were killing me-

“Come now will. You mustn’t hold onto such things. All in the past now. If you could see a glimpse of my mind, why do you think it is so hard for me to see yours....” 

No one had come close to seeing his mind in 6 months. A killer had gotten too close and the tables had turned. Will had nearly become him. Had took up his knife and cleaved a path of freedom from the killers clutches. So stupid and simple. The man had only been spared by Wills own faulty body. He couldn’t complete the swing. The old stab wound had pulled at the right moment in his back, enough pain to wake him up. 

Jack hadn’t mentioned the state of the killer when in custody. But a quick trip to the hospital and Will didn’t leave the white rooms and padded walls for 4 months after.

Hannibal was still watching him, stood close now where he once was not. He reached and thankfully pulled his glasses away, taking his sight and focus. Although small it was another thing Hannibal was capable of taking from him. But he knew, it was easier to look when the outlines all blurred into one. 

“Will...” Hannibal whispered. He’d shut his eyes, and could feel the heat of his breath on his face. “Why do you not want to see?”

He was breathing heavier to counter his heart rate. “Because...I see darkness. Everywhere...and it lives inside everything. It lives inside me, and i-I cant accept it. It’s too tainted, too outreaching to everything else inside. If I let it happen, if I let this go....” he shook his head. 

A soft gush of air hit his face as Hannibal laughed. “Dear Will. I must implore you to listen to me now. You’ve already seen yourself. Everyone has darkness. Everyone. You are no different. I, am no different. You judge yourself too hard, when it should be pointed out. Your mind is a dagger and all your doing is hurting yourself...”

He knows, but the sight of blood was all he knew. What difference did his own make...

His phone ringing broke the quiet session they’d been having. Hannibal had made him promise another night of company as he left to meet Jack at another crime scene. 

\-------------------------------------------

He was edgy the next today, more unstable than he had been the previous days. It was getting worse. Of course Hannibal noticed.

“Would you like to talk about it” Hannibals voice gently inquired as Will remained locked behind distant eyes.

“No” Will replied weakly. 

“....”

“There’s nothing to discuss”

“...if you say so will” Hannibal relented, for now.

This new killer was playing games with him. He had to catch him. His phone was ringing again.

\------------------------------------------

“Would it please you....knowing” Hannibal asked a few days later, setting a plate on the table alone. Will had declined, his own stomach turning at the sight and smells. It smelled lovely, divine even. It reminded him of smoke and ash.

“I suppose” his tone was bland. He couldn’t feel much. Everything was left empty to take in this evasive killers persona. It wasn’t working. 

“Do you know? Or do you simply wish it was so...” Hannibal had been objective to eat alone, but finally convinced by wills haunted eyes. Nothing fazed him but will himself.

“....yes” he could see some of the killer, and perhaps at times, all of him.

“Yes what will?”

“Yes....to both”

“Ah, I see”. 

“....yeah, me to....”

He could taste blood yet nothing had passed his lips for the past day. Water was barely tolerable and perhaps the only thing keeping him going. Hannibal was soon to intervene but kindly kept back until Will was desperate enough to reach.

\---------------------------------------------

They were getting somewhere on the case, him and Lecter, but the sessions still continued. For his health and sanity rather than reason. Will only knew Lecter didn’t want them to stop the sessions as much as he did. 

“These nights do not awaken by the falling of the petals But by the shaking of the tree” Hannibal quoted near the end of the night, relaxed behind his desk. Will let himself catch his eye sight if only for a brief second. Hannibal smiled at him for his trouble.

“You do not fear your thoughts....just the idea of what shakes your foundations” Hannibal finished for the night and bid him a good sleep and rest. When he woke 4 hours later, Jack was calling.

\---------------------------------------------

“What are you?”

“What would you like me to be, Will?”

“Stop playing around and just-tell me!” things were changing and Will didn’t like it. Hannibal smiled lazily, wasting seconds as he ran his eyes over his face. 

“I know your something ‘other’ so just tell me. It can’t be that bad can it. You already know about me I need to-“ Hannibal laughed quietly. Ah, yes. Will’s constant need to know another. Killers, victims, friends....hannibal wondered what category he fell into with Will. 

“Perhaps I’m like you” he tried. Will’s snort was slightly undignified but not unjust.

“There’s no one like me...” he said in sad reluctance. 

Hannibal smiled, “Then perhaps, you’re more like me...”. The next smile was filled with bloody teeth from the next bite of his meal and all will could do was sadly smile back with the same bloody sight. He continue eating, looking across at the monster as his mirror. He watched hannibals eyes track the redness of his own mouth. Will let him see, if only to watch the darkness in hannibals eyes flood over his perfectly constructed walls. 

Finally, he could see.


End file.
